Bidspirit auction | Guna Mola Panel Ceremonial Figures

Guna Mola Panel Ceremonial Figures with Two Thunderbirds - Panama (Guna Yala), circa 1960s 16 × 21 inches Richly worked reverse appliqué mola panel depicting two elaborately dressed figures standing within the spread wings of two thunderbirds— a cosmologically significant form in Guna visual tradition. Both figures are rendered with individualized white faces and embroidered facial features. The thunderbird's heads face outward, each with a circular eye, feathered crest in green and teal, and a small pendant figure beneath. The wings are filled with dense horizontal bands of multicolored zigzag and chevron cutwork in red, teal, yellow, orange, blue, and white. Across the upper register, a bold appliquéd inscription in multicolored Roman letters — A, N, P, I, T, N, P, A, R, W, N — a practice of incorporating Western alphabetic forms documented in mid-century Guna mola production. The surrounding ground of olive-charcoal cotton is animated throughout with multicolored bar-and-dash embroidery. Executed in three layers of olive-gray, red, and orange cotton, with extensive supplemental appliqué and hand embroidery. Provenance: From the Parker & Neal Collection.